While highly anecdotal, an example of the arguably shifting balance of global power can be observed in the fact that China is now regularly sending astronauts into space, while the U.S. is, for the most part, grounded in terms of manned space flight.

I. China Continues Manned Flight Progress

China is planning a fifth manned space mission. Slotted for June 2013, the mission will test an upgraded capsule-type spacecraft, which will be replacing the proven 3-passenger Shenzhou 9.

While crude by space-plane standards, the Shenzhou 9 performed remarkably well, safely ferrying Chinese astronauts (aka "taikonauts") into orbit. In June, China sent its first female Taikonaut -- Liu Yang -- into space. She helped the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft manually dock with an orbiting spacelab, which launched in 2011.

China will send more Taikonauts into space in 2013 as it moves towards making its own space station. [Image Source: NPR]

China is also mastering the art of unmanned space flight. In June, its Shenzhou 8 automated capsule-orbiter successfully docked with the Tiangong-1 space lab, a Chinese orbiting laboratory that is performing zero gravity experiments on live fish, plants, worms, bacteria, and human cancer cells.

China has plans for an orbiting space station, which will go operation by 2020, and longer term plans of establishing a moon colony. China initially considered joining the International Space Station (ISS) effort, but amidst trade tensions with the U.S., is currently pursuing plans for its own private rival station.

The Chinese space station is expected to weigh around 60 tons, versus the much larger 400-ton ISS. One major difference in the concept art sketches of the upcoming station, is a reduced solar panel footprint, this hints that the Chinese station may feature less power electronics.

The Chinese space station will be smaller than the iSS with less solar panels.
[Image Source: BBC News]

The unnamed upcoming station will feature two lab modules, a 20-ton central habitation module, and a pair of ports to allow a robotic supply capsule and a manned capsule to simultaneously be docked.

II. Shenzhou vs. Dragon vs. Soyuz vs. Apollo D-2

The Shenzhou capsules are similar to the General Electric Comp.'s (GE) Apollo mission proposal (D-2), which was similar to the later Russian Soyuz capsule. It should be noted that GE's D-2, Russia's Soyuz, and China's Shenzhou all have slightly different dimensions, suggesting that while they share a common design direction, none of the capsules is a direct "clone" or "copy" of the other [source; source].

China's Shenzhou is similar to Soyuz in general design. [Image Source: Wikimedia Commons]

America is currently ferrying astronauts to and from the ISS in Soyuz capsules. It is finally expected to regain its own domestic launch capability sometime between 2015 and 2017, when SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Comp.) -- Elon Musk's private startup -- finishes its human-rated variant of the Dragon capsule.

With both China and the U.S. pursuing capsule-based designs, it's interesting to compare and contrast the differences. The main difference is that the Dragon lacks a forward orbital module; limiting the amount of time the crew can spending in orbit. The orbital and reentry modules cumulatively have 14 cubic meters of habitable space (8 in the unshielded orbital module, 6 from the shielded reentry module), versus approximately 10 cubic meters for the Dragon in the single shielded reentry module.

A manned version of the SpaceX Dragon (pictured version is unmanned) will be finished in the new few years. [Image Source: SpaceX/NASA]

The manned variant of the Dragon will be carried aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket (a refreshed version of the current Falcon 9 v1.0) with 5.88 Mega-Newtons of initial thrust. Comparatively the Shenzhou capsules are delivered aboard a Long March 2F rocket, which provides 5.923 Mega-Newtons of thrust (reportedly) upon takeoff.

It's interesting to observe how that despite the differences in design, the final amount of thrust delivered by the rockets is quite similar.

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That's only true if their program is in the name of science and open advancement for all.

I see no evidence of that being the case. It's a Chinese program done in the name of China, for the benefit of the Chinese state, people and military.

Which is fine, that's their sovereign right and all. But it's not like open NASA collaborations with ESA, JAXA etc. Heck, I wish NASA would go a slightly more nationalist route myself. One of these days there will be a legal battle over commercial activities in orbit and on the surface of other worlds, and if we go forward like hippies China, Russia and others will already have ate our lunch by the time we get to the table.

Chinese people are humans, just like us. What they do benefits mankind. We're not going to run out of resources in the solar system. We'll be lucky to see it at all within our lifetimes. Right now, China has a good program going on. We should be happy about that.

I agree Samus, with one caveat. Their system of government can lead to a lot of corruption, poor design choices, etc. If they don't keep an eye on it, they could have even state owned enterprises supplying sub-par equipment to pocket cash, stealing materials, etc.

There's also a question that faces every government.. Is ANY government program sustainable with rich-world demographics, which China has? Future budget austerity could topple the whole government there, too, and who knows where a space program would end up after the smoke cleared in a democratic China. SpaceX is heading towards a world where it may need no government business at all.

Apparently they have very deep pockets, and there political system makes it inherently useful even when projects cannot pass any meaningful cost/benefit analysis...as long as it brings political brownie points or "face" for the leaders...

When I was a kid we all knew the Soviet Union had very deep pockets. They had tons of money like the USA, maybe even more. Then they went broke.

The problem with closed communist systems is that you don't know what's going on in the inside. We do know that communism leads to corruption and eventual economic collapse though. Expect China to end up the same way.